The Darkest Night by Gena Showalter

Ashlyn Darrow and Violence Maddox's book





The Darkest Night (Lord of the Underworld book 1)

By Gena Showalter

Book Blurb:His powers -- Inhuman...His passion -- Beyond immortal . . .All her life, Ashlyn Darrow has been tormented by voices from the past. To end the nightmare, she has come to Budapest seeking help from men rumored to have supernatural abilities, not knowing she'll be swept into the arms of Maddox, their most dangerous member -- a man trapp ed in a hell of his own.

Neither can resist the instant hunger than calms their torments . . . and ignites an irresistible passion. But every heated touch and burning kiss will edge them closer to destruction -- and a soul-shattering test of love . .

The Darkest Night was way better than the prequel story, The Darkest Fire but still a long way off what I would describe as an addictive series. 

Maddox and Ashlyn were a great couple to read about but (and a big but here) there was so much that ended up being a head scratcher for me. For instance, there never really was an explanation offered on what caused their electric chemistry as clearly it was more than just an attraction. Their chemistry was described time and time again as literally being shocking with electric jolts. Why did the voices in Ashlyn head go quiet around Maddox? What was so special about their connection as I believe the reader was lead to understand that it was more than just a mutual attraction? I kept waiting for some sort of back-story to emerge to explain all of this information but nothing was shared. 

It drives me nuts in a story when the male protagonist (that has been living for thousands of years) becomes so in love and protective of the female that in less than 24 hours from meeting her, he'd be willing to kill his best friends (that he has had for thousands of years) if they tried to harm her. It just didn't jive. 

I still wasn't a fan of the writing style or the how the voices were written and I totally thought that Ashlyn's self sacrifice storyline was way out there on the ridiculous side. I fully admit to rolling my eyes. 

One more thing that I didn't care for were the amount of characters that The Darkest Night introduced. Wholly smokes my head was spinning and I had started to take notes. I am going to list the characters after this review so I can refer back to them. 

There are a lot of reference in this series to the Greek Gods & Titans. I found that part all very interesting and I still like the idea about searching for Pandora's box. I am going to continue on reading the series for now. It is an easy read that I can put down without hesitation. 

Torin - Lord of Disease
Lucien - Lord of Death
Reyes - Lord of Pain
Aeron - Lord of Wrath
Paris - Lord of Promiscuity
Sabin - Lord of Doubt
Gideon - Lord of Lies
Kane - Lord of Disaster
Strider - Lord of Defeat
Cameo - Misery
Amun - Lord of Secrets
Anya - Goddess of Anarchy
Maddox - Lord of Violence
Ashlyn - when standing at a spot, she can hear any conversation that has taken place at the spot from the pass no matter how long time has passed.